{Beauty & Exercise} Get Bikini Body Ready At Paola’s BodyBarre

I’ve been following Paola Di Lanzo on instagram for quite some time. You may know her name as the personal trainer to most of Chelsea’s “it-girls” or you may know her for her signature barre classes at her studio, Paola’s BodyBarre.

Due to a back injury I’ve been out of the barre game for a while, worried that I might further aggravate the situation. Yesterday, I decided, was the day to try again.

Located on a quiet street in Fulham, the studio is warm and welcoming. Paola greeted every girl in the class by name and knew what was happening that week in their life. The fear of going back to the barre was alleviated the minute I met Paola. I told her about my back and she said she would keep an eye on me.

Paola began the super high energy class by shouting “You’ll probably burn around 650 calories this morning so lets get to it.” Motivation enough for me. For a barre class, there was a lot of cardio, and so I broke into a sweat about 10 minutes in and started to majorly feel that burn she kept talking about. Paola uses a combination of pilates and ballet to isolate and strengthen muscles and giving you a killer core. This class is no joke, and honestly probably the perfect workout to get you ready for your bathing suit.

The class felt like an intimate group personal training session. Paola kept an eye on me the entire time to make sure that I wasn’t doing anything to further harm my back. She modified exercises that she thought may hurt me, and made me feel really great about being able to do the workout without further injury. I loved how personal the experience was, and how much focus she has on each girl individually, which is really important I think when you are doing a class like this.

So today I am totally and completely aching and want to cry when I walk, but in all the right places! Horray! Paola has a number of other classes in her studio, including TRX, Pilates, and Ballerina Boot Camp. She also takes her signature class and adds a bit more cardio for her “Paola’s BoddyBarre Burn” class, which I definitely want to try. I’m so glad I went back to the barre at Paola’s. I’ll be spending a lot more time there before this summer!